If I did all missions at -1 difficulty

Im just curious from a mathematical stand point. If I set the difficulty of my missions to -1, meaning the enemies are 1 level lower than me but also meaning that I can just blow through these missions, would I level up faster or slower than if i did more difficult missions but it took me longer to do them.

I kind of like the speed of doing -1's but I wonder if I do it long term how much slower it will be to get me to 50.

Having a -1 setting does not automatically mean all enemies in all your missions will be 19 if you are level 20. It just means the mission runs at -1. If a mission is backloaded, for example, that means the enemies at the front will be -2, while the ones at the back will be even cons.

In short, it'll depend on how much time you're willing to dedicate to levelling, not what level the missions are.

Logic does dictate however that 2x mission completion bonuses of 15,000 an hour are worth more than 1x mission completion bonus at 20,000 an hour.

thanks!
But are the mission completion bonuses as high at -1 as they are at 0?

I'm not sure if testing has been done for that. I know I don't pay attention to it. But again, even if they aren't as high, if you're doing more missions faster as a result of it being easier, then you're still coming out ahead.

I haven't done any real testing on it, either, but it certainly seems like I can level faster at the low levels now by going -1 enemy level. Pre-Stamina and pre-SOs/IOs, it makes things a lot less painful and "grindy" feeling to be fighting mostly blues with the occasional whites instead of even- and +1-cons.

I don't know if its a complete parallel but while playing my stalker prior to the changes, I noticed that arc bonuses and mission-end bonus are a very fast way to level if you complete the missions quick enough. Given that you mentioned its easier to do so, i would expect your speed to be slightly faster depending on the AT use (and of course travel powers)

Also, if you are worried that you will "run out" of missions before getting to 50...? Dont! We got a "disable exp" button because we had more stories than exp in this game.

It depends a lot on your toon's powers. But my expirience (mostly with damage toons) is that +1 is going to be faster exp then +0 or -1.

I say it depends on the character in question.

Here is some more ancedotal evidence. My new claws/ brute runs at -1 difficulty (x3-5 depending) until I can get stamina, SOs and a few more powers. Why? It's more fun and possibly more efficient.

I don't have to worry about endurance as much since the enemies tend to fall faster. If I didn't have a AoE like Spin I might find it more difficult.

Anyways, I've been running at -1/x2 on most of my new characters and then adjust accordingly based on their capabilities.

If you're a low level 'support' AT soloing and it's taking for ever to kill a lieutenant and you have to keep Resting in between spawns, then -1 is going to help immensely.

Okay guys - for YEARS I've been waiting for someone to work this out and give us all a final answer one way or the other.

Any progress? Is somebody working on this? I have fruitcake for the first one to come up with hard evidence.